Crews were busy cleaning up last week after five train cars carrying grain
ran off the rails near Jasper’s Petro Canada station.

A witness reported to the Jasper Booster last week that the CN Rail train had
been pulling out of the Jasper station when a wheel flew off, causing cars to
derail and grain to spill.

No injuries were reported due to the derailment. The incident happened at about
7:40 p.m. on Sunday, June 29. The rail line was re-opened the next morning.

Kevin Franchuk, a CN spokesperson, said the train cars were not carrying
dangerous goods. CN crews and contractors used vacuum trucks to clean up the
spilled grain.
Franchuk said the cause of the accident is still to be determined. “The incident
is under investigation,” he said.

The last couple of weeks have been challenging times for rail companies.

Divers spent last Wednesday morning inspecting two rail cars loaded with
chemicals after they landed in the Thompson River following a Canadian Pacific
Railway train derailment. The accident happened on July 1 near Lytton, B.C. The
CPR train had been travelling on the CN track about 100 kilometres southwest of
Kamloops when it was hit by a rock slide caused by heavy thunderstorms,
derailing several cars carrying ethylene glycol, a chemical used in antifreeze
and windshield fluid. Environmental officials reported that no chemicals had
spilled into the river.

The federal government ordered CN in June to remove potentially faulty wheels
mounted on trains at the company’s Transcona wheel shop. The emergency directive
came following a Transportation Safety Board railway investigation report
released on June 5.
The federal government has given the railway about four months to remove any
wheels that may be faulty.

The report found that about 12,000 sets are still being used by Canadian Pacific
Railway (CPR), CN and other railroads in North America. Loose wheels has been
identified as the cause of a CPR freight train derailment near Buckskin, Ont. on
Jan. 31, 2006, according to the report. Train car wheels had been mounted at
CN’s Transcona wheel shop in Winnipeg.

The report found that the shop sent out 43,000 suspect wheel sets between 1998
and 2001. Many of the sets have already been removed.

Ken Kuzminski, Yellowhead riding’s NDP candidate in the provincial election held
in March, has been vocalizing his concern about railway safety for last two
years.
Kuzminski said if the train had been loaded with ammonia, propane or chlorine,
Jasper residents and visitors could have been threatened and the local
environment would have been damaged.“We would have had to evacuate part of the
community on Canada Day weekend,” he said.

Kuzminski criticized CN for not working on improving its safety record. “We get
so much rail traffic,” he said. “If something happens, we should be as prepared
as possible.”

Kuzminski also blamed the federal government for not having stronger controls
over railway safety. He said it should be as closely monitored as the airline
industry and that safety should come before profits.

“Railway safety is a huge concern,” said Kuzminski. “These concerns are across
Canada. We should all be concerned about the economic and environmental
consequences.”